ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An icon of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta since 1989, the Creamland cow balloon – officially named “Airabelle” in 1995 – delights thousands of Fiesta-goers every year. Although the balloon has undergone several changes since its debut, the pilot has remained the same.
Pilot Dale Ritchie has been the pilot since the very beginning. He helped conceive the balloon idea in 1989 in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta when his company Aero Dynamics was thinking up their next special shape. “Someone brought up a nursery rhyme and mentioned the cow jumping over the moon and we thought ‘Hey, that would be a neat balloon,'” said Ritchie.
Initially, the Cow Balloon featured an inflatable crescent moon when it would fly, but that would later be removed. “[The moon] became a bit of a liability so we decided it wasn’t really necessary,” said Ritchie. “We just found that, especially in the Albuquerque area, you try to land and then you had to drop this thing… the problem is, you’d cut it loose and then realize that the spot you were looking at landing wasn’t maybe suitable and this thing would be blowing across barbed wire fences and things like that.”
Creamland bought the balloon in 2004 as it began to capitalize on its image. “At the time, we were just leasing the equipment and pilot and everything to [Creamland] and they didn’t have control over the imaging and the branding of their products, and they were starting to put pictures of the cow on their milk jugs and dairy products and things,” Ritchie said.
Before that, the balloon would be sponsored by and leased to various companies throughout North America including a dairy in Quebec. “We would go out to balloon festivals in the Quebec area and fly for them. We flew for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and followed the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers around to their games,” Ritchie said.
The cow traveled to Nevada, California, and even Australia for various promotions and festivals. However, it would always come back to New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta. Its first Fiesta was in 1989.
The version of Airabelle that will fly in the 2024 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the third version of the cow. The first Cow Balloon flew from 1989 until its retirement in 1996 and the second flew until 2004. That year also saw the addition of a second Creamland balloon, the more classic-shaped “Moo Crew” balloon. “That helps to facilitate corporate customers and things like that for Creamland because there are times that I can’t fly the Cow Balloon in certain wind conditions and directions, especially over Albuquerque,” said Ritchie. “It eats up a lot of fuel.”
Along with the removal of the moon, the Cow Balloon has gone through other refurbishments over the years. The 2004 version was rebuilt with the fabric used by Ritchie’s company at the time, Sundance Balloons out of Ontario, Canada. “When we were rebuilding it, the thought was ‘Is there anything that you’d like to see improved on it?'” Ritchie said.
The big change happened to the rip vent at the top of the balloon which was how the first two versions of the Cow Balloon released hot air during descent. It’s effective but irreversible once it’s opened. The 2004 version replaced the rip vent with a more traditional “parachute” top which can release a little hot air at a time and then reseal itself.
“I always tell people that flying a special shape balloon is like flying a rock,” Ritchie said. So how many people does it take to get this rock off the ground?
Ritchie says they’ve flown Airabelle with a crew of six but that’s not ideal. “Usually about 15 or so is a nice size because then that makes sure we have enough people observing,” said Ritchie. He says the Cow Balloon is 120 feet wide and has about 33 velcro air vents all over that need to be sealed before it’s inflated, and torn open during deflation. So, it takes a lot of hands to help with that process.
However, thanks to the amount of help from Creamland, Ritchie says there often are 30 people at a time willing to help out with crewing Airabelle. “A lot of the people that work at the dairy come out and crew and, back in the old days, they would bring their kids, and now their kids are crewing for me and they’re bringing their kids. So it’s kind of a generational thing. In over 30-some-odd years, it’s been a big family thing,” said Ritchie.
